Rich Lafferty's Journal

(mendelicious mendelusions)

Gems from the rant the entire Starbucks was subjected to until I asked the guy to give it a rest already, which at least quieted him down to "one table" volume:

Mental illnesses are called "disorders" and not "diseases" because they're not real like cancer

You can tell they're not real like cancer because you can't detect them in a blood test

Ritalin is chemically identical to methamphetamine

Eli Lilly changed the color of Prozac so they could extend their patent

Because 25% of studies show that people respond to placebos ("sugar pills! SUGAR PILLS!") we can't tell if any brain meds do what they say

Longitudinal studies of psychiatric drugs are all either three or six months long, so no-one knows what happens long term

They're not "side effects", they're just "effects" because the drugs cause them

Drug companies lobby the FDA to declare something a disorder so they can sell drugs to treat it

and on and on and LOUD oh my god you'd think he was giving a speech. Which he was, basically, because you could tell that it was very well-rehearsed.

I feel sorry for the woman he was sitting with, whose participation was basically going "uh huh", "yup", "mmhm" for about 45 minutes straight. What's weird is that the guy did know some things about what he was talking about, weird details like lithium side effects and the name of some of the psychiatrists who developed cognitive behavioural therapy. He just had a, uh, interesting set of conclusions. A loud set of conclusions.

Gah. Getting involved in things like that always shakes me up a little. Writing down the stuff he was going on about reconfirms that he was full of it, at least.